How to improve graduation rates and lower drop-out rates in Wyoming is the focus of a conference this fall, put on in part by the Wyoming State Board of Education.

The education board met in Casper on Thursday to review details of the conference, as well as go over other items.

Wyoming's P-16 Council has offered to serve as the main host for the event, said board chairman Bill Anthony.

"They have a deep interest in the results of this conference," he said.

The conference, scheduled for August 5 and 6, will bring together 70 people from Wyoming agencies to talk about the state's drop-out rate.

Anthony said the goal of the conference is to have short- and long-term goals to fix the problems, including policies to address graduation and dropping-out.

Overall, Wyoming has struggled with lower graduation rates and high drop-out rates. But not every district in the Cowboy State experiences that, said Joe Simpson, deputy superintendent of public instruction.

"Not every district has a graduation problem," he said. "Some graduate 100 percent. But we have others that graduate 40, 50, 60 percent."

A big piece of putting the goals from the conference into action will be to have communities realize the importance of academic rigor and the need to encourage all students to graduate, Simpson added.

Otherwise, the recommendations will just be recommendations.

"We'll be flapping our gums," he said.

Federal regulations are requiring states to change how graduation rates are computed. Soon all states must report their graduation rates in terms of student cohorts.

For example, all freshman students at one school would be considered a cohort. The school's graduation rate is determined by figuring out how many students in that cohort completed high school in four years.

Students who take more than four years to earn a diploma or who earn a GED will not be included in a school's graduation rate.

Reach education reporter Jasa Santos at (307) 266-0593 or at jasa.santos@trib.com. Read her education blog at tribtown.trib.com/JasaSantos/blog.